Max Lucado Daily: A Tree That Will Never Fall
A Tree That Will Never Fall
Posted: 27 Mar 2011 11:01 PM PDT
“God is strong and can help you not to fall.” Jude 24
Can God really keep you from falling?
To answer that, go to a . . . tree on a barren hill. A tree older than time. A tree that covers the mistakes of your past and the problems of your future. Be assured—that tree will never fall.
Mark 10
Divorce
1 Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 “What did Moses command you?” he replied.
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”
5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8 and the two will become one flesh.’[c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11 He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
The Little Children and Jesus
13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
The Rich and the Kingdom of God
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’[d]”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is[e] to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Philippians 2:4-11
not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Gold-Medal Effort
March 28, 2011 — by Dave Branon
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. —Philippians 2:4
At the 2009 Kansas high school state track championship, an unusual thing happened. The team that won the girls 3,200-meter relay was disqualified. But what happened next was even more unusual. The team that was awarded the state championship by default turned right around and gave their medals to the team that had been disqualified.
The first school, St. Mary’s Colgan, lost first place because judges ruled that a runner had stepped out of her lane as she handed off the baton. That meant the second team, Maranatha Academy, moved up to first. After receiving their medals, the girls from Maranatha saw the downtrodden looks on the faces of the St. Mary’s girls, so they gave them their individual medals.
Why did they do this? As Maranatha’s coach Bernie Zarda put it: “Our theme for the year was to run not for our glory, but for God’s glory.” As a result of the girls’ action, their story was told throughout Kansas, and God’s name was lifted up.
When we set aside our own interests and accomplishments to recognize that it’s better to care for the interests of others (Phil. 2:4), we see God’s name glorified. Acting with grace and kindness toward others is one of the best ways to point people to God.
Love is not blind but looks
Abroad through others’ eyes,
And asks not, “Must I give?”
But, “May I sacrifice?” —Ziegler
When we love God, we will serve people.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 28th, 2011
Isn’t There Some Misunderstanding?
’Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to Him, ’. . . are You going there again?’ —John 11:7-8
Just because I don’t understand what Jesus Christ says, I have no right to determine that He must be mistaken in what He says. That is a dangerous view, and it is never right to think that my obedience to God’s directive will bring dishonor to Jesus. The only thing that will bring dishonor is not obeying Him. To put my view of His honor ahead of what He is plainly guiding me to do is never right, even though it may come from a real desire to prevent Him from being put to an open shame. I know when the instructions have come from God because of their quiet persistence. But when I begin to weigh the pros and cons, and doubt and debate enter into my mind, I am bringing in an element that is not of God. This will only result in my concluding that His instructions to me were not right. Many of us are faithful to our ideas about Jesus Christ, but how many of us are faithful to Jesus Himself? Faithfulness to Jesus means that I must step out even when and where I can’t see anything (see Matthew 14:29). But faithfulness to my own ideas means that I first clear the way mentally. Faith, however, is not intellectual understanding; faith is a deliberate commitment to the Person of Jesus Christ, even when I can’t see the way ahead.
Are you debating whether you should take a step of faith in Jesus, or whether you should wait until you can clearly see how to do what He has asked? Simply obey Him with unrestrained joy. When He tells you something and you begin to debate, it is because you have a misunderstanding of what honors Him and what doesn’t. Are you faithful to Jesus, or faithful to your ideas about Him? Are you faithful to what He says, or are you trying to compromise His words with thoughts that never came from Him? “Whatever He says to you, do it ” (John 2:5).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
When Cranking isn't Enough - #6316
Monday, March 28, 2011
Okay, I don't remember a lot of the content from my science classes in school, but I remember some of the experiments. Remember the one with the hand generator? They connect it to this light bulb, and the harder you crank, the brighter the light gets. If you're gonna try and run your stove, your lights, your air conditioner, your TV with a little hand crank generator, you've got a power shortage.
Now, we have just outside our window on the street on this pole, a big transformer. And fortunately, that's the power we have plugged into to run all the things we need to run. I'm glad we've got that transformer voltage to depend on. Depending on the power that I could crank, it would never do the job.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Cranking isn't Enough."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts chapter 12 and I'll begin reading in verse 4. The scene is that King Herod has just arrested Peter, feeling that by arresting the key leader of the church in Jerusalem, he will break the back of the Christian movement. The scripture says, "After arresting Peter, Herod put him in prison; handed him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each." This is only one guy, huh! "Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. So Peter was kept in prison," - there's not a period there, there is a comma. Listen to this: "but, the church was earnestly praying to God for him."
You probably remember that during the night an angel came and took care of the guards, took care of the soldiers, took care of the chains, took care of the locked gates, and delivered Peter much to his amazement and the amazement of the very people who were praying for him.
I think this prison situation goes beyond just Peter's own incident here. It's one of those situations where an answer is totally beyond your reach. I mean, that's where Peter was. He was totally beyond the reach of the church. They could not in any way affect this situation. They had no power to reach where he was. But they had a prayer meeting.
Maybe you're in one of those "beyond your reach" situations, and you're still cranking your little hand generator saying, "I've got to come up with more power! I've got to come up with an answer." The Bible says their response was to be earnestly praying. And earnest praying reached where no man could, did what no man could do, opened doors no man could open. God is still in the business of opening doors on prisons around people the same way.
Now, when we have unmoving mountains, we tend to have all kinds of meetings. "We need to have a planning meeting." "We need to have a committee meeting." "We need to have a finance meeting." "We need to have an emergency meeting." The power is in the prayer meeting, and usually that's the shortest meeting we have. We have a four-hour committee meeting. We're lucky if we have a half-hour prayer meeting. Guess what will do more.
The great Christian leader of another generation, Dr. Bob Cook taught me this. He said, "Prayer is a method of getting things done. It's not something that helps your methods; it's the way to get it done." We usually open our meetings; close our meetings with prayer, right? But do we stake everything on prayer? And when we pray, do we pray expecting the supernatural?
D. L. Moody said when he was asked the secret of his power, "For 50 years I have had access to the Throne of Grace." A person, or a situation, or a need that's beyond your reach. Well, don't keep trying to crank out a man-powered answer. Plug into the awesome generator of God's power.
Make the prayer meeting your first stop.